Automatic conveyor systems often transport a plurality of goods in parcels which must be individually identified to be properly sorted. Parcels such as airline baggage, shipping containers, production inventory, machine parts, and component parts are often identified with flexible tags. Electromagnetic sensing is sometimes used to identify the flexible tags on individual parcels placed upon a conveyor.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,339,962 issuing to Sommer Jr. et al. on Aug. 23, 1994 discloses a method and apparatus for sorting materials using electromagnetic sensing. This patent discloses the selective use of an air blast to remove articles from a conveyor.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,576,286 issuing to Buckley et al. on Mar. 18, 1986 discloses a parts sorting system wherein wave energy of a single frequency interacts with the part, and is sensed to generate a signal representative of a characteristic of the amplitude and phase of the detected wave energy.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,450,492 issuing to Hook et al. on Sep. 12, 1995 is representative of an electronic identification system having a transmitter for generating an electromagnetic excitation signal, and one or more transponders with variable time and frequency.
To be effective, the flexible tags on individual parcels must first be oriented to position the flexible tags in relation to the reader antenna positioned in proximity to the conveyor belt. Flexible tags which lie parallel to the reader antenna significantly decrease electrostatic coupling. Manual orientation of the parcels to orient the flexible tags in relation to reader antenna is labor intensive and time consuming. Thus, what is needed is a way to automatically orient the flexible tags in relation to reader antenna to improve identification of the parcels upon the conveyor belt.